a picnic-y sort of day

this afternoon we went for a walk across the farm. to drink white russians out of the canteen and eat goat cheese and crackers. this is my idea of a perfect picnic. my two best friends and my favorite foods.

nos chats

je vous présente billy et sir rocco. my two new barn kittens.  their rather lofty goal on this brisk sunday is to acquaint themselves with the great outdoors...or even just our front and backyards. 


 i will consider this a great success if they can only stop scaling our screen doors and pitifully meowing when they want to come in. 


my goal for this sunday is to finish planting two more rows of kale, chard, cabbage, and lettuce. 

american gothic

so very american gothic. i think we may need to hire ayana away from the big city. today more gardening. we need to get all this mulch over the plants as its getting downright chilly at night. happy weekend to you all.

today, i am thankful

today i am thankful...

for ayana, who has taken the overnight bus from new york and with whom i will be spending 3 glorious uninterrupted days

for the kitten sleeping right now in my puzzle box even though he cannot fit

for the other kitten eating our crickets

for nick and rudy who are still cuddled in bed

for the humidity breaking

for the first frost being kind and tardy so that i can still tend to my gardens

for the two carolinian women & their husbands who opened up their lives to me and let me attend their births as a doula

for having so many flowers around the farm that i can still fill seven jars comfortably 

for our little house, in all its cement-floor glory

for our local dairy making egg nog

for an upcoming day in the garden with my best friend. 

north cackalack is changing me

goddamn. sometimes i look a wee bit white trash. or nouveau white trash as nick and i like to say. budweiser. pit. dirty ass tank top and cut offs. bandana. and the more worrisome thing about it all, is that i kind of love it. 

morning glory be gone

dearest little morning glory. you are adorable...but i cannot let you stay. you vine your way around my poor vegetables and slowly suck the life out of their innocent roots.

i will give you my best attempt at a transplant to the upper house. you can vine your way around the former tenants lovely collection of cinderblocks all you like.

on another note: ayana comes tomorrow!!

the renovations that never end

i hope that there comes a day...maybe in a month or two...when my days off....our days off... are decidedly not spent tiling the bathroom floor or pillaging thrift stores for $2 rugs and silverware....i want us to be able to actually take a breath, for a full day, and enjoy this beautiful countryside that is ours.

for now though,  as we are elbow deep in renovations, i will find happiness in the little things, like the beef stew nick made that has lasted us 3 days or this rather large mirror i found for $5 this morning. 

tuesdays

on the docket for this dreary tuesday morning..... a cuppa tea.....a tiresome amount of sewing including a new shower curtain (finally found a manual for my 40 year old sewing machine online !!!!)....and creating a guest room where there is none in anticipation of ayana's weekend visit. 

first birth

dear lord i am a tired girl. in the wee hours of friday morning i got called in to attend my first birth as a doula. i was there for 21 hours. it was.....surreal. maybe because i was tired. maybe because i have never seen a human baby born....just pig babies and goat babies. 


my other mama is having early labor contractions now. it makes for a rather hectic schedule....being on call while working the farm. next time i may try to space my clients out a bit more.....2 in one week is a bit trop. 

a yellow day

the farm was emphatically yellow this afternoon. yellow being one of my most adored colors, meant that i found this quite pleasing. aside from that i had a thoroughly unproductive day in the gardens. there is some horrid creature (cricket? grasshoper? worm?) eating at my cabbage and collards. so mostly i just sat in front of the damned plants, sulking and trying to find a way to stop the destructive madness.

here we are

this is me. well this --the picture--is actually, and quite clearly, several chickens. our chickens. me and my boyfriend, nick, live on a farm in north carolina. it is my cousin's farm. and before this we were office people with lovely indoor jobs in san francisco. now we live here. and we are quite happy about here. my days consist of gardening. of spoiling my piglets. of getting as muddy as humanely possible. of herding sheep. of catching runaway turkeys & chickens. this little blog is a way to show you about here. 

so welcome.